LEADER

Rheumatoid arthritis

MRI of the wrist in early rheumatoid arthritis

C G Peterfy

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr C G Peterfy
Synarc Inc, 575 Market Street, 17th Floor, San Francisco 94105, CA, USA; charles.peterfy{at}synarc.com

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Can it be used to predict long term functional outcome?

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Keywords: rheumatoid arthritis; erosion; magnetic resonance imaging; osteitis; functional outcome; prediction

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The past several years have witnessed unprecedented advances in rheumatology, with the introduction of several new compounds capable of halting the relentless progression of joint destruction and functional disability in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). With these successes, however, have come new pressures for medical imaging to resolve even the slightest traces of erosive joint damage and to identify pre-erosive inflammatory features that can accurately predict which patients will go on to severe functional debility if they do not receive aggressive structure modifying treatment immediately.

Before the introduction of effective treatment, rheumatology’s demand for imaging joint structure was modest, at best (fig 1). Although it was widely accepted that joint damage was a key driver of functional disability in RA, particularly in late disease,^1–3 without effective treatments to prevent erosive destruction, there was limited need for detailed information about the integrity of joint structure. Magnetic resonance imaging . . . [Full text of this article]

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